Small MPU – Page 1229
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News
Germany maintains investment in exhibition sector
The German exhibition sector has been maintaining a high level of investment in the national cinema infrastructure, despite widespread caution that cinema construction is outstripping the growth in admissions across many European territories.During last year, Germany's exhibitors invested more than $355m (DM 800m) in building 448 new cinema screens. (compared ...
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Local comedy is Korea's biggest summer hit
Local Korean comedy Kick The Moon has passed Pearl Harbor's $12.1m and The Mummy Returns' $11.5m to become this summer's biggest box-office hit, and the second-highest grossing film of the year after the smash hit Friend. As of July 22 the film had attracted over 3.1 million admissions nationwide ...
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South India's 'Marlon Brando' dies
Legendary Tamil film star Villupuram Chinnaiah Pillai "Sivaji" Ganesan, dubbed the Marlon Brando of south Indian cinema, died on 21 July aged 74, after a brief illness.Winner of many awards, including National honors: the Padma Shri, the Dadha Saheb Phalke award (the country's highest honour in the entertainment industry) and ...
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Alliance Atlantis to raise $106m
Alliance Atlantis Communications (AAC) is raising money to forward its TV ambitions, announcing plans for a public offering of 8million Class B non-voting shares. Based on the July 19 closing price of $13.30 on the US NASDAQ exchange, a fully-subscribed offering would realise $106m. In a statement AAC said the ...
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News
Brazilero to open Athens film festival
One of the most eagerly awaited Greek films of the year, Brazilero will open Athens' 7th edition as a world premiere. The quirky comedy with socio-political undertones is directed by Sotiris Goritsas, whose most recent film Balkanizateur was a critical and a box office success for local distributor Rosebud. Patrice ...
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UK's Pathe goes for Dinner Rush
The UK's Pathe Distribution has acquired Dinner Rush from Entertainment Capital Group (ECG).The story about the dramas of New York's hippest Italian eatery has a cast including Danny Aiello, Vivian Wu, Sandra Bernhard and Summer Phoenix. Access Motion Picture Group, a subsidiary of ECG, will release the film in the ...
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Giffoni fetes Jimmy Grimble
A jury of international school children presided by Billy Elliott star Jamie Bell has awarded the Giffoni Film Festival's top prize to UK director John Hay's football hopeful movie, There's Only One Jimmy Grimble.The youth-oriented festival, which ran July 14th to July 21st in the small southern town of Giffoni ...
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Jerusalem votes for Late Marriage
Seriously concerned that political tensions might hurt this year's event, Jerusalem festival chief Lia van Leer was relieved to some 7,000 people roar with delight at the opening night, open-air screening of Shrek. Dover Kosashvili's Late Marriage was the main prize winner, taking prizes for Best Israeli Feature Film and ...
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Reviews
Dark Blue World
Dir: Jan Sverak Czech Republic-UK 115mins.With the WWII aerial drama Dark Blue World, Czech director Jan Sverak has proven his ability to manage both comedy and tragedy on a much larger scale, without losing any of the warmth and emotional depth of his Oscar-winning Kolya. Much of the credit ...
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News
Kidman puts pen to paper on Dogville contract
Zentropa now claims Nicole Kidman has signed on the dotted line to star in Lars von Trier's Dogville after all - an agreement clearly hastened by noises from the film's producers earlier this week that a new lead was being sought because of the Australian actress' apparent hesitancy to commit.Zentropa ...
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News
Sundance names six composers for Composers Lab
The Sundance Institute has announced the six composers who have been selected for the Sundance Composers Lab which will be held in Utah from July 24 to Aug 6.The Sundance Composers Lab, which first took place annually from 1986 to 1989 and then reintroduced in 1998, aims to provide a ...
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News
Tuchman joins, Haimowitz leaves MGM Networks
Bruce Tuchman has been named executive vice president of MGM Networks Inc, with a remit to establish cable, satellite and other channels to distribute MGM's 4,100-title film library and manage the company's existing channel interests worldwide.Tuchman takes the role previously held by Jules Haimowitz, president of MGM Networks, who will ...
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News
Ang Lee to be consultant for Columbia's Asia unit
Ang Lee has struck a deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) to act as a consultant for its Hong Kong-based production unit Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia (CPFPA) - the company which backed his 2000 Chinese-language smash Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.In his consultant capacity, Lee will work closely with CPFPA ...
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News
Soderbergh, Miramax reteam on Hotel Room Fire
Miramax Films is reteaming with Steven Soderbergh for the first time since 1991's Kafka on the director's next film How To Survive A Hotel Room Fire - a sequel of sorts to Soderbergh's film debut sex, lies, and videotape which was also a breakthrough film for Miramax in 1989.Miramax has ...
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News
Eisner still 'content obsessed' despite $5.3bn buy
Walt Disney chief MichaelEisner insists his entertainment empire continues to be 'contentobsessive', as opposed to newly fixated on distribution, despite yesterday's$5.3bn deal to acquire a collection of children's programming channelsfrom Rupert Murdoch and Haim Saban.The purchase of Fox FamilyWorldwide gives Disney access to more than 115 million new viewers across ...
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News
Capitol takes over Cobalt's Spider
Capitol Films has taken over the financing of David Cronenberg's Spider after Cobalt Media Group dropped out on the eve of the shoot.A spokesperson confirmed Cobalt was "no longer involved" in the psychological thriller, which is expected to start shooting within two weeks, a delay of a few weeks.While the ...
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Three Spanish films to vie for San Sebastian award
Spain's premiere film event, the San Sebastian International Film Festival has unveiled the first titles in its official competition line-up for the 49th edition which runs from Sept 20-29.Three Spanish films will compete for the festival's top prize, the Golden Shell (Concha de Oro) award. They include: Vicente Aranda's Juana ...
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Miyazaki smashes own box office record in Japan
Toho's summer release of Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) has smashed the four-day opening record set by the Japanese all-time box office champion, 1997's Princess Mononoke. Spirited Away, an animated feature by Hayao Miyazaki, who also directed Mononoke, grossed $15.8m (Y1.95bn) over the weekend and Monday, some 83% ...
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News
Sogecable reveals profit rise of 262%
Spanish media group Sogecable has posted net consolidated profits of Euros7.5m (pts1.251m) for the first half of 2001, up 262% from Euros2.1m (pts345m) during the same period last year.The company posted an extraordinary gain of Euros40.5m (pts6.7m) largely derived from the July 2 sale of 45% of rights division Sogepaq ...
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News
Indian TV production company moves into film
Balaji Telefilms, whose television serials rank among India's top shows has announced plans to begin making low-budget films. The Mumbai based production company, founded by Hindi film star Jeetendra Kapoor and his daughter Ekta, is looking to make content-driven movies, with a budget of around $100,000, to be targeted at ...